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Everyone benefits when more people vote

Voting patterns in the United States tend to run inversely proportional to their local impact. Many people will come out to vote for president, while a special election for a community position will draw very few voters. That’s understandable, given how much power a president has to affect everyone’s lives. But local positions could have a more immediate impact on day-to-day life, such as the look of a neighborhood or the character of a road. It’s not a president, after all, who will determine whether you can get a building permit. This year’s elections fall in the middle of ...

As sheriff, Lange brings criminals to justice

To the editor: In November we have an opportunity to cast our vote for Nicollet County sheriff. Not many people you vote for can affect our lives on a daily basis, but your vote to re-elect Sheriff Dave Lange can be a positive way. Dave has had the opportunity to serve and protect us for the past 19 years of which I am grateful to live in a community that I feel safe in. Knowing that Dave also encourages and supports working with and collaborating with surrounding agencies to fight crime and bring drug-related criminals to justice. Working in law enforcement today is difficult and ...

Other Editors

Is the pandemic over? President Biden finally dared to say it on Sunday, declaring in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the “pandemic is over.” Various public-health eminences are saying he’s wrong, but his comments recognize the reality of the disease at this stage and the public mood. The trouble is that his Administration still hasn’t lifted its official finding of a COVID public-health emergency. Eric Topol, the Scripps Research Translational Institute director who is one of America’s leading COVID scolds, tweeted “Wish this was true. What’s over is ...

Most Americans value immigration

At a time when the American economy could use more people, restrictions on immigration continue to trap a lot of unused talent in low-productivity countries. To unleash it, the United States could simply let these immigrants in and let them work. They’d become a productive part of the system that makes this country so wealthy. But politicians are getting in the way. Forget for a moment about the usual fear-based talking points. Ignore the recent use of immigrants as political props. As George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan said on PBS, “if you don’t know anything about ...

Federal aid boosts state’s EV charging network

Transitioning the nation away from gas-powered transportation comes with many facets that need to come together. Developing reliable electric vehicles and batteries and then getting to a point where their price tag comes down is the first step. But the key to widespread acceptance and use of electric vehicles is to have a robust system of rapid charging stations across the state. That effort got a big boost recently when the Biden administration approved an ambitious plan that pumps $900 million into the 34 states that created plans for EV charging station buildouts. The funding ...

Tip of the iceberg

Around Vermont this summer, folks have been remarking about what a warm summer it has been. “It’s like the summers I remember growing up,” someone remarked recently. Except, that might only be true if you were born (and had some keen awareness) over the last 15 years. We will find that July was one of the warmest on the globe. But for all intents and purposes, at least in the Northeast, it has been a “normal” summer, if not too dry, weather watchers say. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the average temperature in August 2021 for the ...